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Topic: small hive beetles and advice (Read 17876 times)

Hello,This critter was crawling around the hive entrance around some of his shriveled friends. :-P The bees seem to be ignoring them, but they look frighteningly like SHB larvae. The hive is strong, it looks like I need to do an inspection. What are my best non-chem treatment options?

Use your thumb and kill everyone you find. I like to use beetle barns and a ground drench. I cleaned out my oil trays on Thursday. They were full of wax particles, beetles, bees, and lots of pollen. Took the torch to it to kill out all the maggots in there. It burned for hours. The wife wanted to know what all that black stuff was and why was it burning. I told her it was lightning strike. She would buy it. Now I need about 15 more gallons of oil.

From my battle last year, kill all of them you find (If they are to bad take the hive apart and kill all that you find.), don't let the worms get to the ground (get chickens or guinea hens), keep your hives strong.

From my battle last year, kill all of them you find (If they are to bad take the hive apart and kill all that you find.), don't let the worms get to the ground (get chickens or guinea hens), keep your hives strong.

How many do you have around how many hives? Questions is.... How many does it take to be effective? Guineas or chickens or combo?Do gunieas eat bees, do bees care about/bothered by our fathered friends?

I poison them and take the traps out if there is a potential for a honey harvest. There are virtually no SHB in my hives and I think the bees really appreciate it. For me it was a question as to if I was a beekeeper or a honey producer. I figured if my hives died because I didn't control the SHB...what's the point?

My home made cooking oil traps have been catching 40-60 in the first day and then about 20-25 a day, soon dwindling down to 3-5 a day depending on infestation. There's still beetles running around in the hive though. I'd be interested to know if anyone has any info about beetle populations. How many do you need to kill in what time frame to keep the hives afloat?I understand the larvae will hatch and boom the population.Also the beetles fly in in late afternoon. Where do they come from?

I know that when the beetles come out of the soil, they do not have to live in a bee hive. They can eat pollen and fruit off the plants. They just use the hive to reproduce and if the hive has food for them and they can get to it easy, they will take up in that hive. I think they fly all the time of the day or night, but most say at night. Stop them in the hive before they lay eggs is the best way to keep the population down. Then kill them in the ground with gardstar as a second measure. Just some thoughts on SHB.

If each larvae becomes one beetle, there is no way the population explosion I'm witnessing is from an isolated population. They must be flying in. If there are other infested hives in my area, no amount of in-hive control would necessarily dent the beetle population.What about catching them as they fly in? I'm aware of the beetle jail traps.Are there other ways to catch them as they come flying in in the evening?

You can make a PVC tube trap and place it outside the hive, but that just shows there are SHB in you area. They are still going to get into the hive. You can also place a oil trap under your hive. Either under a screen bottom or they make one trap, all black plastic that goes over the bottom board.

full sun, and some kind of oil filled trap - I had the west on one hive, and the other hives were SBB, the west trap and the SBB with fire ants on the ground below didn't have a problem with infestation. I had one SBB that had an undesireable SHB population, (no trap, no ants, poor sun) so that hive is being relocated, possibly over an anthill. (the trick is to make sure the ants can't get into the hive itself) Under the hive they will eat the SHB larvae, in the hive is just trouble.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

If you're using roach poison, why would you not want to use this trap during a honey harvest? Is there potential to contaminate the honey

Personally I think that it is such a tiny amount of poison and contained in the trap I doubt there would be any significant contamination at any time. However, some people are very adverse to using any chemicals on their hives at any time. To the point they will watch a hive die out instead of doing what needs to be done to give them a chance. For me I look at it as a balance. If the beetles get out of control the hive will die. One or two of those little traps with a tiny bead of the poison completely eliminates them. If I start seeing them again I put in another trap and a week later take it out. Beetles done..... As a precaution I would take the traps out several weeks before harvest.

tecumseh:1) remove infected comb and freeze for 24 hours. pay special attention to any comb with a lot of pollen (<think shb on steroids). any web track thru the comb means the comb should be frozen. after freezing the comb is reusable.

2) if the hive is weak feed some (doesn't normally require a lot).

3) in some situation boost hives with a frame or so of capped brood.

4) anything that falls to the bottom board burn (ie do not scrape unto the ground).